Genesis Noir – A Cosmic Adventure

$48,184

1,725

backers

We've made a short story on the web that will give you a taste of the tone and interactions you'll find in Genesis Noir. Try the teaser experience at GenesisNoirGame.com/teaser

Genesis Noir is an adventure game with an emphasis on exploration, tactile interactions, and generative art. You will wander around 3D starscapes and 2D vignettes. You will collect cosmic clues solve little puzzles and play with particles. You might even destroy the universe.

In Genesis Noir, you will discover worlds familiar and alien. Explore nebulae, asteroid fields, black holes, primordial Earth, and jazz cafes. You will become acquainted with the massive, the microscopic, and everything in between.

The gameplay of Genesis Noir blends visual storytelling and interaction into one seamless experience. The space between cutscene and gameplay is dissolved through surreal scene transitions.

Play with generative systems and discover what they create. Express yourself by planting seeds, transforming landscapes, creating and destroying stars, or improvising a jazz duet.

Genesis Noir takes place on Earth, amongst the darkness of space light years away, and even in higher dimensions.

Play as No Man, a watch peddler stuck in a deterministic hell, as he gets caught up in lust and crime. Explore our universe. Witness the history of mankind. Discover a way to destroy creation. Find comfort from a glass of gin. Search for an escape from it all.

Along the way you'll meet Miss Mass, an alluring jazz singer who attracts all who come close. You'll track down Golden Boy, a narcissistic artist who loves to create and destroy. You might even encounter Siren Sapien, a formless femme fatale, dangerous and perceptive.

The Big Bang is more than creation, it is a gunshot in slow motion. You must enter the expanding universe and search for a way to stop it from striking your love. Find clues, change worlds, destroy the universe.

Genesis Noir features the music and sound design of Skillbard, a London-based team of composers and sound designers. They work in film, television, games, sound art, pop music, and sonic branding.

Skillbard are members of Late Night Work Club, a collective of independent animators and musicians, and have provided music and sound design for the Strangers and Ghost Stories anthologies. They have also recently completed the sound design for Rubber House and Cartoon Network's Lasso and Comet.

Genesis Noir is very inspired by the poetry of Cosmicomics, the awe inspiring science of Cosmos (Neil + Carl <3), the tactile gameplay of Windosill and puzzling of Samorost, the rhythms of Sun Ra, the mythos of William Blake, the paneling in Glorina, and a whole bunch of noir films.

Evan is a freelance designer / animator in NYC working on projects ranging from product design, interactive installations, character animation, and motion graphics.

He has worked with more than 20 NYC studios, including Google Creative Labs, Buck, and B-Reel. He has worked on many award winning projects, including projects that have been exhibited at MoMA and the Museum of the Moving Image.

Jeremy is a creative-tinkerer living in Brooklyn, NYC making things ranging from interactive installations, web experiments, motion graphics, and electrical engineering.

Jeremy has worked for leading NYC studios including Google Creative Lab, Bossa, and B-Reel. He is a prominent member of the Hyper Light Drifter speedrunning community, has won numerous awards for his work on the web, and has VJ-ed for NYC musicians such as Maxo.

Surprise Attack Games is an independent games label based in Melbourne, Australia. It partners with amazing indie developers to bring remarkable, weird and unique games to discerning players worldwide. Possessing a wide range of marketing and publishing experience gained from working on titles such as Hacknet, Orwell, Screencheat, Armello, Dungeon League and Blind, Surprise Attack Games will aid Feral Cat Den with the publishing of Genesis Noir.

We're huge fans of the way Kickstarter can bring a community together around an idea. We are excited to gather support and feedback as we undertake this big project.

Our goal of $40k, however, is only a portion of the ~$300k budget Genesis Noir will require to be fully realized. This initial budget will allow us to bring on our sound designers and collaborators more fully onto the project to achieve an alpha build. To acquire the full scope of funding, we are working with Surprise Attack to gather a group of investors to supplement Kickstarter. The closer we get to $300k, the more we make and the more creative control we have - so we hugely appreciate your support!

Here is how the Kickstarter funds will be allocated:

Risks and challenges

For the past 12 years, we’ve been making projects nonstop; everything from short animated films, interactive installations, little games for our friends - heck, even a pinball machine. We’ve learned from the best while working at great studios including Google Creative Lab, B-Reel, and more than 20 other studios.

But creating a video game is a monumental task. This is our first game in Unreal 4 and we’re very ambitious. We are leaning on our strengths but as with any large project, there will be lessons to learn. Incorrectly scoping development time and losing a member of a small team are risks of most indie games, Genesis Noir included.

Luckily, we have some great mentors supporting us. We’ve partnered with the industry veterans at Surprise Attack to aid us with publishing Genesis Noir. In addition, as winners of the NYS Game Dev Challenge, we have the support of RIT Magic Center and the NYU Game Center. We’ve also have been talking with many experts of the game industry including Greg Rice from Double Fine, Sam Boucher from KO-OP, etc. We’re very grateful that the indie game community is so helpful and supportive.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $75 or more
About $75

The Composer

Flip through a collection of 45s and sheet music in a smokey jazz club. A little song you create in the web teaser experience teaser.genesisnoirgame.com will be included in game.

---

(Also includes a special thanks in the credits + a digital copy of the game + a collection of digital wallpapers and the official soundtrack + a collection of pins, stickers, and a universe starter kit.)

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $100 or more
About $100

The Reader

Receive a special Genesis Noir graphic novel and learn more about No Man's history.

The story will come to life with a moire acetate insert that transforms the illustrations into animations.

---

(Also includes a special thanks in the credits + a digital copy of the game + a collection of digital wallpapers and the official soundtrack + a collection of pins, stickers, and a universe starter kit.)

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $200 or more
About $200

The Exhibitor

Receive a beautiful poster printed with gold ink on black paper.

Hang it on you wall and contemplate your frailty in the face of the cosmic.

---

(Also includes a special thanks in the credits + a digital copy of the game + a collection of digital wallpapers and the official soundtrack + a collection of pins, stickers, and a universe starter kit + Genesis Noir graphic novel.)

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $350 or more
About $350

The Sculptor

Get a handmade galactic resin figurine of No Man.

Put No Man with your action figures and see them all have an existential crisis after hanging with a drunken god.

---

(Also includes a special thanks in the credits + a digital copy of the game + a collection of digital wallpapers and the official soundtrack + a collection of pins, stickers, and a universe starter kit + Genesis Noir graphic novel + a gold ink poster.)

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $500 or more
About $500

The Tourist

An illustrated version of you will appear in the game as a background character.

Choose whether you want to be a member of a hunter gatherer tribe, or maybe an astronaut exploring space, or possibly an otherworldly immortal being.

---

(Also includes a special thanks in the credits + a digital copy of the game + a collection of digital wallpapers and the official soundtrack + a collection of pins, stickers, and a universe starter kit + Genesis Noir graphic novel + a gold ink poster + a galactic resin figurine)

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $1,500 or more
About $1,500

The Sentimentalist

Help us design a photograph, item, or audio clip that will be discoverable in an interstellar time capsule.

Leave a cache filled with artifacts like a golden record, strange images, and something dear to you on a distant world.

---

(Also includes a special thanks in the credits + a digital copy of the game + a collection of digital wallpapers and the official soundtrack + a collection of pins, stickers, and a universe starter kit + Genesis Noir graphic novel + a gold ink poster + a galactic resin figurine)

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $5,000 or more
About $5,000

The Designer

Is there a moment in history or a place in the galaxy or character you have always wanted to meet? We'll work together to bring your idea to life and explore the universe together.

---

(Also includes a special thanks in the credits + a digital copy of the game + a collection of digital wallpapers and the official soundtrack + a collection of pins, stickers, and a universe starter kit + Genesis Noir graphic novel + a gold ink poster + a galactic resin figurine)